Tell us about your favorite breed

[RabbitMage]

I thought this would be a neat, educational topic. If you have experience with a breed, post about them, pics, some basic facts, what you like about them, and all that other good stuff.

Tan: Tans are a medium size breed weighing 4-6 pounds when full grown, with most staying under 5 pounds. They come in four colors: black, blue, chocolate, and lilac. This is the body color, all four colors have the Tan markings. They are a full arch breed and rather than being posed, they are allowed to run up and down the judging table to show off their natural type. They are VERY active and very smart, and this gives them an unfair reputation as being mean to people who aren't used to them. I've known very few Tans who were really aggressive, but if you're holding a Tan and it decides it's done being held? It's going to leave! For this reason they may not always be the best choice for timid or young breeders, and they can be very challenging for 4-H and FFA members to use in showmanship. It took about 4 months of work, but I managed to get one of my Tans to pose and sit still, and placed 6th out of 30-something kids in showmanship when I was in high school. So it can be done!

What I like about Tans is that they are easy and challenging in the right ways. Easy because they don't need special grooming, they are consistently good mothers, and you never get a mismarked Tan like you do with so many other marked breeds. They are challenging because the breed is always improving by leaps and bounds and the quality is so consistent that getting a rabbit that stands out is hard, but satisfying. Most judges I talk to say you could take the top five rabbits in a big class of Tans and just flip a coin to pick the winner-they're usually that close.

My family's approaching 10 years of breeding Tans. We've competed all over the U.S. and even sold rabbits as far away as Japan. I love these guys and I can't imagine not having at least one in my life.

 

[Kooshie]

I don't know enough about rabbits to know what my favorite breed is but Tans are gorgeous!

 

[Goatzilla]

My favorites are Florida Whites. They are basically a small (6lb) miniaturized version of a New Zealand White. I have raised and exhibited rabbits on and off over the last 30 years. I currently raise New Zealand whites for meat, and have a couple of Californian and Chinchilla does that I cross to my NZW buck just for something different. I also recently picked up a couple of nice quality Florida Whites to begin raising again. I had a lot of fun raising and showing them a while back, and I want to do it again.

FW's are an excellent exhibition rabbit because as most show people will tell you, it takes a lot of breeding and offspring to build a "show string" of excellent competative rabbits to bring to the shows each season. The result of such vigorous breeding is a lot of culls. FW culls can all be sent to the freezer, as well as pet and breeding stock can be sold. A mature FW is an excellent smaller size meat rabbit with a very well developed loin and the dress-out and feed conversion ratios on them is astounding. Also, being a smaller meat rabbit, you can have many smaller cages in the same area where you woud have to have much more space to raise the same number of the larger meat producing breeds.

In the past, I have also raised and exhibited Netherland Dwarves and Satins. I enjoyed them all, but i seem to get the most "bang for my buck" with the FW's.

Here is one of my NZW bucks...

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And this is my FW buck..

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